#9: Atmosphere II: Backpack (Water Soldier)

Last Monday was our second jury again in Ware Lounge with Professor Christoph Kumpusch. Entitled "Backpack", we made a scalar jump from the ice project looking at the space near the human body; we were to design a backpack that could filter water. With such a loose prompt, the students came up with 22 different schemes. I created an emergency distribution system that answered two questions. Can water/air act as structure and can man be a factory? Beginning with a printable disposable plastic sheet, it can filled with water or air to be flat packed and mass distributed, utilize its structure for emergency care, or integrate into the backpack for comfort. Because of emergency situations, I chose not to rely on electricity and be as portable as possible and decided to use hand pumps to filter and fill.

Other students looked at a poetic analogy to masculinity and sexuality, a floatable device that saved you from dirty water two ways, through filtration and life support, and a backpack that translated the motion of a body in motion to electricity, amongst many others.

The critics were more than impressed that we really took this project beyond the prompt making very particular and unique schemes. He went so far as to say we exceed previous year's "work." I don't know if that was hyperbole or truth, but it definitely made us feel good. But the most important global criticism was that we were looking at architecture again as opposed to a purely computational engine.

My scheme is in the corner by the door with the detail cells. My biggest gripe is that the school promotes itself as a paperless program but we're still doing good ol' fashion pin-ups. I guess multi-media presentations won't be for later semesters.